


Meet Me In The Library

by RebaK1tten



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: First Date, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-18
Updated: 2013-02-18
Packaged: 2017-11-29 17:00:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/689324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RebaK1tten/pseuds/RebaK1tten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set mid-Season 3.  Spencer wants to spend some time alone with Aaron.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meet Me In The Library

The thing that Spencer wants most, his biggest wish, is to see Hotch smile again.  To be honest, the thing he really wants to see is Hotch naked in his bed, and smiling at him, but that won’t happen.  So just getting him to smile for any reason is Spencer’s goal.

And of course, Hotch is stressed out.  What with Gideon leaving and then Rossi coming back. As helpful as that is, it’s still change.  And of course the small matter of his marriage ending and having to ask for permission to see his son. 

But here, Spencer is pretty sure he can help.  Jack’s birthday is coming up and Hotch mentioned that he wants to do something special.  Anything that Hotch does would be special to Jack, but of course this is also for Haley’s benefit, at least in Hotch’s mind. 

Spencer doesn’t know a lot about kids, but Hotch has said Jack likes dinosaurs.  Apparently, this is pretty common for boys his age, and Spencer can use this to help Hotch give Jack a memorable birthday.  Jack will be happy, which means Hotch will be happy, which trickles down to make Spencer happy.  For now, that’s the best Spencer can hope for.   It’s a quiet Saturday, and he got to the office early, supposedly to catch up on expense reports, aware that only he and Hotch are in.  Spencer finishes up his research and makes a shopping list and then scrawls a message on a sticky note, ‘Meet me at the Library at 2.15.’  This should give Hotch plenty of time to finish his reports and drive over.   Of course, he waits until Hotch is out of his office getting a coffee refill before he sticks the note on his office door and then he sneaks out.  They’ve talked about Spencer helping, so he’s pretty sure Hotch will come…pretty sure.

Hotch is there promptly at 2.15, no surprise there, he’s always prompt. “Hi, thanks for meeting me here, I hope I didn’t interrupt work,” Spencer says, pushing his hair out of his eyes and smiling nervously.   He’s gone from no doubt whatsoever that this is a great idea to worrying that he’ll be considered pushy and intrusive.  

“It’s fine, Reid.  What’s going on?” Hotch asks, glancing at the books Reid’s stacked on the table.  They’re in one of the study rooms off to the side and the table has a dozen books, from both the children’s and adult sections, stacked up in piles. 

“Well, I know that you’re working on Jack’s birthday party and I know that he likes dinosaurs, so I got some information and pictures  and thought we can make a model for Jack’s birthday,” Spencer says without taking a breath.  “Really, Hotch, it’s not hard,” Spencer says as he flips open a book.  “They have pretty basic shapes and we can do them with paper mache.  I’ve done these before and they’ll be easy and impressive – at least impressive to kids.”

Hotch looks at the pictures Reid is pointing at and raises an eyebrow.  “You’re willing to do this?  It looks like a bit of work.”

“It’s not hard, Hotch, I was doing these when I was six years old.   But I’m not doing them by myself, it’ll mean more to Jack if you can say that you did them.  I’ll just help.”  Spencer looks at Hotch and smiles what he hopes looks like a confident smile.  Or at least not one that looks like he’s ill.

“You may be over estimating my skills at crafts.  I’m hardly Martha Stewart.”

“You won’t need to be.  I’ll get the supplies and the forms and we’ll just put it together and when it’s dry, paint it.   Or two, depending on the size.  We can do one that hangs over the table and one for the floor?”   Spencer opens a book to a picture of a Pterodactyl and looks at Hotch. 

Hotch frowns and shakes his head.  “I don’t think that one would be good, Jack is afraid of bats.  What else is there?”

Spencer looks at him, and then back at the book, his brows drawn together.  “It’s not a bat, Hotch.  It’s a pterodactyl.” 

“I know, but it flies and it kind of looks like a bat, so it might scare him.”  Hotch shrugs and smiles at Spencer’s confused face.  “That’s how kids think, Reid.  Or at least Jack.”

“Here, how about this?” Spencer pulls another book towards them.  “Brontosaurus.  Like Dino from the Flintstones?  No one can be scared of this.  And if you want…we can make this one kind of big.  It has a long tail and neck,” Spencer points towards the picture.  “We could make this really big, like room size.   Not that we’d want to go crazy, but…” Spencer says, grinning.

Hotch snorts and replies, “You, Jack and I might like it, but I really don’t think this is a good time to annoy Haley.  But maybe if we could make it about Jack’s height?  So he has a dino-buddy?” He grins back at Spencer.

“Yeah, that would be easy.  Umm, how tall is he?”  

Hotch puts his hand to the side of his leg.  “About here, but it’s been a few days since I’ve seen him, so he could be taller.”  He shakes his head and looks away.  “I swear, every time I see him, he looks like he’s grown more.  I know that’s not possible, but I feel like I’m missing so much.”

Making Hotch depressed wasn’t Spencer’s goal at all, so he rushes in to change the subject.  “Okay, so I’ll make a frame for a brontosaurus that’ll be about his height.  And we can do a smaller one that can be on the table for his party and then he can keep it on his dresser or take it to school or whatever.”   Spencer opens another book and shows Hotch the picture.  “Stegosaurus.  They’re herbivores, they have spikes, kids recognize them…”  He shrugs again, unable to stop himself.  Trying to think of things that typical kids like isn’t his strong suit.   “We can paint them so they’re kind of friendly and not too scary.”

Hotch flips a few pages of one of the children’s books that Spencer has on the table.  “Yes, that would be good, Reid, I think he’ll be really happy.  You think two are doable in the amount of time you have?”

“Amount of time we have, Hotch.  We, not me.”  Seeing Hotch smile sheepishly, Spencer adds, “I have most of the things we need at my house and I’ll get the rest today, I already know what we need.  So we can work on it tonight, if you’re free. We can order a pizza or something for dinner, if that’s okay with you.”   

“Yeah, that would work.  And thanks, Reid.”  Hotch help him stack up the books and carries the larger stack out of the room, letting Reid exit first.  “You must have been pretty sure about me agreeing with this,” he says, but Reid can hear the smile in his voice and he’s thankful Hotch doesn’t see his stupid grin.

After the library, Spencer rushes to the craft store for some final supplies and then back home to make sure his apartment is clean.  It’s never really messy, he’s not there often enough to make a mess and it’s just not his nature.  But he wants to clean up the bathroom, run the vacuum and shove anything that doesn’t have a place under his bed or in the closet.  Hotch hasn’t been to his home before, and even though he won’t do it intentionally, Spencer knows that Hotch won’t be able to avoid profiling his apartment.  So clean, but not obsessively so. 

Spencer already started making dino-shapes, anticipating that Hotch would agree to his general idea.   Now he just needs to finish adding a frame, made of paper towel tubes and chicken wire, for a longer tail and neck.  He has two foam balls, ready to carve into heads.  Wall paper paste is diluted with water in a tub and last night he made a sludgy paper pulp mix from egg cartons, water and paste.   Paints and brushes are in a separate box for another night.  He didn’t quite tell Hotch everything, but this project will take a couple of nights – a couple of evenings that they can spend together talking about all sorts of things, maybe having a drink…  Sure, Spencer thinks, and maybe Hotch will fall madly in love with me over tempera paint and we’ll marry and go to Mars to honeymoon. 

Just before 7, the apartment door buzzes and Spencer finishes brushing down his shower-wet hair and rushes to the door. 

“Hey, hope I’m not early,” Hotch says as he enters.  As expected, he surreptitiously looks around the living room, and then shakes his head and apologizes when he sees Spencer smile knowingly at him.

“It’s okay, I expected you to check the place out.  Is it what you expected?” Spencer asks.  “You thought there would be books everywhere, didn’t you?”

“No, not at all.”  Hotch says, easily moving into the kitchen and taking a bottle of wine out of a bag he’s carried in.  “With your memory, I didn’t think you’d need to keep books, unless they’re ones that have some special meaning to you.”

“Wow,” Spencer says, leaning against the kitchen counter.  “Most people don’t realize that, but yeah… I have a few text books, some first editions and some of my mom’s from when she taught, but mostly, I don’t keep books.” 

“Well, I am an expert profiler, of course.  That, and Morgan told me,” Hotch smiles at him and points to the cabinets.  “Wine opener?  I hope you don’t mind I brought wine, since you mentioned pizza.”  Spencer leans past him to pull out a drawer with an opener and then sets down a couple of glasses.   Hotch is wearing jeans and a long sleeved rugby shirt and Spencer tries not to look at the bit of throat showing at the top. 

Hotch pours them each a glass and holds up his glass for a toast.  “What should we toast to?  Oh, to great dinosaurs,” he says and clinks their glasses together.

“To dinosaurs,” Spencer repeats, watching Hotch drink and then he mentally shakes himself.  “Come on, I’ll show you what we’ve got,” he says and heads over to the kitchen table where everything is set up.

For the next couple of hours, they work side-by-side on their projects.  Spencer explains how he’s framed the bodies and shows Hotch how to put on the paper and glue and how to use the egg carton pulp like clay to sculpt the face and some smooth out seams.  Spencer has Hotch sculpt the face so they can later add eyes and nostrils.  Hotch is also trusted to carve out toenails, even though he acts more nervous than he does entering a crime scene. The brontosaurus is turning out a little bigger than planned due to his head and feet; he’s almost up to Hotch’s waist by the time he’s fully formed. 

While they’re working (and drinking wine) they talk about Jack and how he’s doing and a little about when Spencer’s mom taught and general non-work-related things.  They both know subjects to avoid, and it’s nice to talk about things that aren’t about the job – to talk like two people, like friends.

They break briefly to order pizza and work through dinner, eating as they continue to build the dinosaurs.  Hotch seems to be enjoying himself, playing with paper and paste, attaching little spikes of cardboard to the top of the stegosaurus and carving a toothy smile into each of the dino’s faces. 

It’s close to 11.00 when they decide they’re finished for the night.  Hotch straightens up the project area while Spencer washes the dishes they used and wipes down the table and counters.

“I’m almost finished with this, Hotch, if you want to go wash up, the bathroom is just down the hall,” Spencer says, gesturing with a dish towel.  He’s cleaned up pretty thoroughly while washing dishes, but the paste on Hotch’s arms, where he shoved up the sleeves earlier, is starting to dry. 

“Good idea, be right back,” he says walking down the hall, pausing to look at the artwork on Spencer’s walls.

Spencer finishes cleaning up, leaving the models on the table to finish drying.  He’s told Hotch that they’ll need to dry for a few days, and then they can paint them, meaning they get another evening together.  Then the paint dries a few days and Spencer committed to doing the varnish.  He’ll keep them at his apartment until the night before the party so Hotch can pick them up and deliver them in the morning.  Or Spencer will drive them to Hotch’s house when he wants them.  Pretty much whatever Hotch wants, Spencer is willing to do.  Scratch that, no ‘pretty much’ about it.

He’s so busy with his thoughts that he doesn’t hear Hotch come up behind him.  “Thanks for taking care of all of this, Reid.  I know it’s a lot of work.”  He probably doesn’t realize how close he’s standing to Spencer, because when Spencer turns around, they’re practically chest-to-chest.

He’s surprised for a minute, and then looks at Hotch’s face and he’s looking at him in a way Spencer hasn’t seen before.  Hotch’s eyes are warm and he’s not backing up at all. 

“You have a bit of clay on your neck, just here,” Spencer whispers, pointing at the spot on his own neck.  He reaches over and gently rubs the clay off Hotch’s neck.  Hotch reaches up and runs his hand up Spencer’s arm and leans forward and kisses him softly.

Of course, Spencer is shocked, but recovers quickly because he’s kissing Hotch (Aaron! He thinks – he’s kissing Aaron) and Aaron is kissing him back.  It’s a little tentative, but when Spencer doesn’t pull away, it quickly becomes more urgent.  He tastes of wine and smells deliciously of soap and the cologne that Spencer’s known for the past several years.  Spencer moves his hand down Aaron’s arm (Oh, god, Aaron’s bicep!) and then moves his hand back to Aaron’s neck and slides it down his shoulder, unable to stop the little noise in his throat.

Suddenly Aaron pulls back, panting and looking at the floor.  “I’m so sorry, Spencer.  Reid.  I’m sorry, Reid, that was totally inappropriate and I’m…”

“No, no, Aaron, that was fine.  That was better than fine, that was…”

Aaron shakes his head, still not looking at Spencer.  “No.  It was wrong and I’m… I have to go, I apologize again and …”  He doesn’t finish, just grabs his jacket and keys and before Spencer can say anything else, he’s out the door.

Well, crap.   

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for what was going to be a multi-author series, "Notes from a Gentleman" but it kind of died. I think this was the starting chapter.


End file.
